Free Seed Catalogs For Home Gardeners

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Do you love to curl up with a colorful seed catalog and read it like a book? If so, I’ve rounded up a group of the best seed catalogs I order from year after year. How can you know which is the best for you?

One of the hardest decisions a gardener will make every year is where to order seeds. In this list, I share with you my favorite companies updated for the 2024 growing season.

You’ll find certified organic, open-pollinated, heirloom, and hybrid seeds in this list. You’ll also find potatoes and onion sets, garlic, asparagus, herbs, and more!

These seed companies are all top-rated and have free seed catalogs available upon request.

Seed catalogs are a bit of an obsession for me. I enjoy holding them in my hands, feeling the pages, smelling the print, and being able to circle and highlight seeds that interest me.

Holding a book in my hands is much more satisfying than staring at a computer screen.

So when seed catalogs begin arriving in the mail in January, it’s perfect timing for pouring a cup of your favorite coffee or tea, curling up on the couch and reading them cover to cover, taking in the pictures and descriptions while dreaming about spring, summer, and fall gardening.

My choice of seed companies are those that are members of the Organic Seed Growers Association and those who have taken the Safe Seed Pledge that sale open-pollinated heirloom seeds.

I like knowing the companies I order from care about the preservation and sustainability of seeds. And they believe in freely saving, replanting, selling, and sharing seeds.

All the seed catalogs on this list belong to both organizations. So this moves them up on the list of the best seed catalogs.

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What Is A Seed Catalog?

Seed catalogs are wonderful reference guides packed full of helpful gardening information. They include long lists of vegetables, flowers, cover crops, fruit trees, sprouts, and more!

They also include charts, tips, planting zones, and just a vast amount of information. A seed catalog can tell you if garden seeds you are considering are better for starting indoors or would do better direct sown into healthy garden soil.

You can spend hours reading and learning garden tips from experts in growing organic and heirloom seeds worldwide.

How To Know Which Catalogs Are Best For You?

When searching for the right seed catalog, consider your climate, soil, and planting needs. Your garden’s best chance is to grow healthy plants that are specific to your region or climate.

Plants will not struggle as much if the mother plant has been grown and is acclimated to your climate, temperature, and weather patterns.

The same goes for seed catalogs. Your home garden will have a much better chance of producing higher yields when seeds are purchased from companies that have collected seeds near your region or zone.

For example, I’m in Tennessee, and many of my seeds come from Sow True Seed in North Carolina. That climate and weather are very much like it is here in Tennessee. Since they grow their own crops and harvest the seeds, their seeds work well in my climate.

This is not to say that seeds from around the world will not grow in your area, but a good seed catalog will provide you with the best climate and weather recommendations for individual seed varieties.

RELATED: How to Start a Garden for Beginners

Where Do You Get Free Seed Catalogs?

This list is the top 10 catalogs I recommend for free seed catalogs. The first five I recommend are ones I’ve had experience with directly.

I’ve ordered from them and have been very pleased year after year with their service as well as the germination of the seeds themselves.

Best Free Seed Company Catalogs for 2024

This list includes the top 10 seed catalogs among others. All these companies are reputable companies that sell excellent seeds.

1. Sow True Seeds (Asheville, NC)

My passion for Sow True Seed started in 2017 when I first began learning about cover crops in a Master Gardener class. Our instructor suggested the company, and I’m so thankful he did.

RELATED: How to Use Cover Crops in Raised Beds

They have a wide variety of cover crops, and their selection of sprouting seeds, microgreens, herbs, and vegetables is also amazing. This is always the first catalog I order from every year.

2. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (Mansfield, MO)

They offer over 1300 varieties of vegetables, flowers, and herbs – the largest selection of heirloom varieties in the USA. I also love that they encourage gardeners to save seeds and buy local ones to support local farms.

You’ll love their huge full-color catalog. And their seeds are guaranteed for two years—and free shipping.

They have their gorgeous Whole Seed Catalog, over 500 pages of full-color images packed with information about seed history and recipes.

And then they have their free seed catalog you can request. But of course, they have a website if you prefer to browse it instead.

3. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (Mineral, VA)

Located in Virginia, Southern Exposure offers over 800 vegetables, herbs, flowers, grain, and cover crop seeds. And over 60% of their seeds are open-pollinated, certified organic, focusing on seeds that grow well in the mid-Atlantic and southeastern regions that are grown by small farmers.

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Their 72-acre farm has extensive herb and vegetable bed gardens. It’s not open to the public, but they do hold an annual open house where you can visit and learn about how they grow and produce organic seeds.

The seed catalog is full of colorful images and full of information to help you grow your best crops ever. Since they are a smaller company, they do sell out of popular varieties, so start planning your garden now.

RELATED: When to Plant Vegetables in the Spring

4. Seed Savers Exchange (Decorah, IA)

Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit company dedicated to preserving heirloom plant varieties through regeneration, distribution, and seed exchange.

They collect and store rare seeds in their nongovernmental seed bank here in the United States. Members can search and exchange open-pollinated seeds.

Seed Savers sells only Heirloom, Untreated, Non-Hybrid, Non-GMO seeds.  Their farm is certified organic. 

They grow over 20,000 vegetables on their 840-acre farm. And they offer a beautiful free seed catalog in print and PDF online. 

5. High Mowing Organic Seeds (Wolcott, VT)

High Mowing promises a 100% organic seed 100% of the time. Their seeds are bred to the best in organic conditions, being Non-GMO regularly tested.

In addition, they offer over 600 heirlooms and open-pollinated and hybrid varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flower seeds.

They are the company that established the Safe Seed Pledge in 1999 and then recruited nine other companies to sign the pledge. Today, over 370 seed companies have signed the pledge worldwide.

Their seed catalog features stories about the growers & farmers who use their seeds, and it’s also available by mail and online.

6. Territorial Seed Company (Cottage Grove, OR)

Territorial Seed Company has been in business for 40+ years.  Their 75-acre organic farm strives to provide the most nutritious varieties of seeds available anywhere.

Their company is considered one of the top seed companies. They strive to improve self-sufficiency and independence by enabling gardeners to grow and produce an abundance of fresh vegetables and herbs from their own backyard gardens.

They test-grow seeds for quality and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Their FREE Seed Catalog can be ordered in print form.  Something interesting about their catalog and seed packets: the images on them are created by a local artist in their area.    

7. Pinetree Garden Seeds (New Gloucester, ME)

They have vegetables, flower seeds, and a lot more. The family-owned business offers over 1300 varieties, including organic and heirloom seeds.  As well as tools, gardening gear, books and more!

Their full-color catalog is chock full of vegetables, herbs, flowers, grasses, tubers, cover crops, and more. It also contains essential oils, seed starting supplies, mushroom logs, teas, spices, soap-making supplies, books, and more. 

I’d suggest you set some time aside to browse this one. It is a full one to browse.

8. Annie’s Heirloom Seeds (Madison, WI)

Annie’s sells nothing but heirloom seeds they get from all over the world. They work in their basement, packaging and shipping seeds as they are ordered.

They are homesteaders like us who dream of gardens, dairy cows, and making a living off their 4-acre homestead. Check them out and request a catalog.

9. Park Seed (Greenwood, SC)

Being one of the oldest seed companies, founded in 1868 by a 15-year-old, they offer both organic and heirloom seeds.

Not only do they sell vegetable seeds, but you can also get flower seeds, herbs, fruit trees & shrubs, seed-starting supplies, tools, and outdoor living goodies.  

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Selling only open-pollinated, heirloom, and organic vegetable, herb, and flower seeds to the home gardener and small market farmers.  They are supporters of sustainable food production and regenerative agriculture.  

10. Strictly Medicinal Seeds (Williams, OR)

Located in Oregon – certified organic grower and family-owned.  They specialize in medicinal herb seeds but also have organic vegetable seeds, cacti seeds, medicinal roots, trees and shrubs, plants, and more.

Their catalog is somewhat petite compared to other catalogs, but it is packed with seed varieties and medicinal information. You can learn so much from it.

You can even purchase your very own tincture press from them! Request a free catalog and plan to get lost in the knowledge this company shares about herbs and seeds.

Native Plant and Flower Seed Catalogs

Select Seeds (Union, CT)

You’ll find lots of antique flower seeds in this catalog! They have an extensive availability of native plant seeds for pollinators with both annual and perennials. It is a company that is committed to living green too.

They offer gardeners an extensive and curated collection of high-quality seeds and plants. They specialize in heirloom flowers, open-pollinated annuals, bee-friendly flower seeds, and plants.

RELATED: Is Your Yard Bee Friendly?

Prairie Nursery (Westfield, WI)

The Prairie Nursery doesn’t carry vegetable and herb seeds, but they do need to be included. They specialize in Native Plants that are so important for our ecosystem and the pollinators.

For us to be successful gardeners and to be able to grow food, pollinators are necessary. So this catalog is here is the best flower seed catalog available.

RELATED: 22 Flowers to Feed Pollinators Into Late Fall

This gorgeous full-color catalog will find ferns, grasses, wildflowers, shrubs, and much more.

Anytime you can plant native, do so. You’ll help the environment, your plants will be healthier and easier to grow, and all of Prairie Nursery’s plants are Neonicotinoids free!!!

More Organic Seed Catalogs You Should Know About

Note: I’ve not ordered from the following list, but they have taken the safe seed pledge and are committed to the home gardener. Which is important. These companies may be nearer to you, so you will want to check them out.

• Harris Seeds (Hudsonville, MI)
• Johnny’s Select Seeds (Winslow, ME)
• Uprising Seeds (Bellingham, WA)
• Wild Garden Seeds (Philomath, OR)
• Hudson Valley Seed Company (Accord, NY)
• Wood Prairie (strictly seed potatoes)
• Renee’s Garden (Felton, CA)
• Seeds of Italy (Lawrence, KS)

Garden Supply Catalogs

Gardener’s Supply is the sister company of High Mowing Seeds.  They are one of the best garden supply catalog companies too. They carry everything a gardener will need. 

As I’ve said, opening the mailbox to find seed catalogs is exciting.  Winter is the best time to plan your garden, and there is no better way to do it than looking through stacks of seed catalogs.  

Many companies sell out of seeds before you know it.  So don’t delay in ordering from your favorite catalog. 

BONUS: When ordering seeds, be sure to order for both the spring garden and fall garden harvest for both flowers and herbs. Since 2020 seed companies have struggled to keep up with demand. Ordering at Christmas time is best if possible.

Many seeds need to be started indoors before the garden season begins. So get them soon!

RELATED: Using Grow Lights for Seedlings and Indoor Vegetables, DIY Grow Light System

More Helpful Garden Articles

• How Much to Plant Per Person for a Year
• 13 Easiest-to-Grow Vegetables for Beginners
• Spring Gardening Checklist-Get a Headstart on Spring Chores

Final Thoughts

Gardening seed catalogs may not come to mind as reading materials, but they are great for educating any home gardener. So tell me, with this huge list of free seed catalogs, who is your favorite?

This post has been updated from the original date of December 30, 2020.

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